The State of Play
Last weekend, Fulham were very impressive as they exploited the high-line of AFC Bournemouth at Craven Cottage to defeat The Cherries by three goals to one. The Cottagers are now coming up against another team that play an intense and almost dangerously high-line as they take on Aston Villa. That will give the likes of Rodrigo Muniz, who has three goals in two games, a lot of confidence of getting on the scoresheet again.
Aston Villa were grinding out results against the likes of Brentford, Middlesbrough and Burnley over December and January with some really unconvincing performances but The Villains have since entirely swapped around. They put in fairly impressive performances at home to both Newcastle United and Manchester United but they suffered back-to-back defeats in those matches.
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Team News
Fulham welcomed Fode Ballo-Toure back from Africa Cup of Nations duty last weekend but it remains unclear as to whether Nigerian duo Calvin Bassey and Alex Iwobi will be available for this one after finishing as runners’ up last weekend.
Aston Villa had a mixed week in terms of injury news last weekend as Boubacar Kamara became the third Villain to suffer an ACL injury this season after Emi Buendia and Tyrone Mings but the latter of which returned to partial training this week.
Expected Line-ups
Fulham: Leno; Castagne, Diop, Ream, Robinson; Palhinha, Cairney; Decordova-Reid, Pereira, Willian; Muniz
Aston Villa: Martinez; Cash, Carlos, Lenglet, Alex Moreno; Tielemans, Luiz; Bailey, McGinn, Ramsey; Watkins
What they Said
Marco Silva was very pleased with his Fulham side after their victory last weekend: “It’s a great win for us and well deserved. Overall we were the better team over the 90 minutes. The first-half was at a very good level.”
In the aftermath of their defeat to Manchester United last weekend, Unai Emery suggested his Villa side has ‘control’ of the game and is not overly concerned as the defeat was a result of his team simply just not being ‘clinical’.
When and How to Watch
This match will be played at Craven Cottage at 15:00 on Saturday February 17th but will not be televised live on the UK. It will also, therefore not be able to be streamed live in the UK.
Prediction
These two sides will head into this game and be looking to play on the front foot. Boubacar Kamara has done a crucial job in helping Villa shield a very high back line so they could well be involved in even more topsy turvy clashes between now and the end of the season. Both teams scoring would seem very likely with a high-scoring clash on the cards in west London.
